The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a bureau within the
Department of the Interior. Our mission is working with others to conserve, protect and
enhance fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American
people. Although a relative newcomer to the Department of the Interior, the Fish and Wildlife Service's programs
are among the oldest in the world dedicated to natural resource conservation. The Service traces its
origins to the U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries in the
Department of Commerce and the Division of Economic Orinthology and Mammology in the Department of
Agriculture.

The Service manages the 93 million-acre National
Wildlife Refuge System of more than 520 National Wildlife Refuges and thousands of
small wetlands and other special management areas. Under the Fisheries program it also operates 66 National Fish
Hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations.

The Service employs approximately 7,500 people at facilities across the U.S.
The Service is a decentralized organization with a headquarters office in Washington,
D.C., seven geographic regional
offices, and nearly 700 field units. To learn more about who we are and
what we do, please visit the "Who We Are"
page.

Please click here
to learn more about the Service's role in the history of natural resource conservation.
For additional information about this Web page, please contact us.